How to Do Free Shipping Day — Without Losing Your Shirt

Are you ready for Free Shipping Day on December 18? If not, now is the time to start planning, especially if you want to participate without cutting into your profits.

Since its founding in 2008, Free Shipping Day has continued to grow in size. In 2011, Free Shipping Day produced more than $1 billion in online sales and over 200 eBay and 300 Etsy sellers participated.

Here are a 4 ideas on how you can participate, and make a profit:

Use the best shipping option. This seems like a no brainer, but it’s worth repeating. Make sure you research shipping costs with every carrier so that you don’t leave money on the table. If you need help researching the rates and don’t want to toggle between multiple websites looking at rates, ShipWorks can help.

Promote early and often. If you’re going to participate in Free Shipping Day, be extremely proactive and promote it to your customers to build awareness. You can also register on the Free Shipping Day website. There is no cost to participate and you can sign up at FreeShippingDay.com.

Offer other premium services. To help reclaim lost margin for free shipping during the holidays, consider offering other premium service options, like faster shipping times or gift wrapping.

If you can’t do free, try a flat fee. Free Shipping may not be right for your business this year. If it isn’t, consider offering an attractive flat shipping fee like $5 shipping on any order. To make sure you don’t lose your shirt with the flat fee, we recommend looking at your average shipping cost and establishing a flat shipping fee based on your known shipping costs.

Have another suggestion on how to successfully offer Free Shipping? We’d love to hear it. Share it with us on Facebook.